Deals & Don’ts

Civilized behavior trumps Friday shopping strategies

Stella Morrison
By STELLA MORRISON
Staff Writer

For the past six years, I did not sleep the night after Thanksgiving. Instead, I went from outlet to mall, participating in the Black Friday madness that so many consumers seem to secretly love but desperately avoid.

I have no shame in saying that Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year. Part of it is the excitement of the crowds swarming to shop at 4 a.m. Part of it is being able to afford the high-quality and designer items that I cannot afford at other times during the year. It might even be the rush of seeing a receipt for $80 shoes that I paid $20 for. As a self-proclaimed coupon queen, the great lengths to get a deal are nothing short of absolutely thrilling.

It’s a day (night?) I take pretty seriously, too. I map out exactly when I’m going where. I immediately chalk off what places are not worth my time or business that evening — big-box stores and any retailers that attract a gigantic crowd are automatically off my list. I will not be part of a giant stampeding mob that disrespects workers and makes fools out of fellow deal-seekers.

Instead, I go to locales that I learned from experience have a calmer clientele and attract fewer people, something closer to a busy Saturday than a Black Friday deluge. I bring friends and we take turns standing in line so we check out faster, a divide-andconquer strategy that I couldn’t do without. I even plan what I wear down to my socks. Leggings and a tank top with a sweater make the ideal Black Friday shopping outfit. With a layer that thin, I can throw any item on in the aisle and not have to wait for a fitting room. And everything rejected is put back on the hanger or folded on the shelf. It is so important to treat retail employees well and not to dump things wherever because “It’s their job,” a lesson that gets lost in the giant Black Friday mobs that have literally trampled workers.

Black Friday shopping with me means that everything is compartmentalized and analyzed. No time is left wasted. I have never waited hours in line, I have never camped out and I have never waited longer than 20 minutes for the doors to open at midnight or 4 a.m. Even then, the stores that I wait on line for are chosen carefully (and scored me $50 off a $75 purchase at a major clothing retailer last year). Those trade-offs are often weighed against how much effort I’m putting in — if the amount of time to wait or the size of the crowd outweighs how much I want something, I walk out. This year, though, you won’t see me when the doors open at the unprecedented hour of 8 p.m.

In what people have dubbed “Grey Thursday,” the impossible hours of operation for retailers are slowly creeping upward to intrude on the whole reason most people have Black Friday off — Thanksgiving Day. Every year, as the stores open earlier and earlier, the pushback from customers tends to get stronger. I have friends who will take part in “Buy Nothing Day,” designed to protest stores opening on Black Friday. Others pursue Small Business Saturday, a noble venture that encourages people to shop in their communities over the busy retail weekend. That is something I want to go out of my way to make sure I do this year, as well.

Despite my love of Black Friday, I find myself agreeing with the outrage. Thanksgiving is one of the few days per year that my entire family gets together to celebrate the holiday season, and I’m sure that that is the case for many families. To take floor workers, security personnel and store managers away from that is a thankless thing to do during the season of thanks.

This doesn’t mean that there should be a blue law on Thanksgiving to force stores closed, as some have suggested. It means that when a store says they are opening earlier because of consumer demand, there is a responsibility to demonstrate that not every consumer is demanding it. This is said with our wallets. This is said by going out of our way to tell stores that we do not leave our families to go shopping. Maybe if enough people do this, retailers will learn that opening on Thanksgiving is a waste of their resources and a waste of the employees’ time.

This year, I’ll make this statement by doing what I do every year, by not showing up until after midnight. I’ll participate in Black Friday, an activity I love and enjoy every year, after my turkey and cranberries have digested, after my family has said goodbye for the evening. I will remember to say “please” and “thank you” to retail employees no matter how tired or distracted I am. I will say “excuse me” to pass through a crowd. The excitement of getting a deal should not outweigh the constant need for decency, something that tends to be forgotten when the 90 percent off signs are flashing in front of us. And if I see a mob, I will walk away, for no deal is worth sacrificing ideals of good behavior.